Dubai, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Construction work is intensifying into a major new structure at Israeli key facilities Delinquent Atomic Weapon Programaccording to satellite images analyzed by experts. They say it could be a new reactor or facility that will assemble nuclear weapons, but the secrets that surround the program make it difficult to know for sure.
Working with Simon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center Near Dimona city, we update questions about Israel’s widely believed status as the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East.
It can also elicit international criticism, especially since it comes after Israel and the US. Iran’s bombed nuclear site In June, the fear that the Islamic Republic could use its enrichment facilities to pursue atomic weapons. Among the sites attacked was the Iranian heavy water reactor in Arak.
This file image, made from footage aired on January 7, 2005 by Israeli TV Station Channel 10, shows that the channel claims to be an Israeli nuclear facility. (Channel 10, file via AP)
Seven experts who looked up the images said they believe the construction is linked to Israel’s long-standing, suspicious nuclear weapons program, given the proximity to Dimona’s nuclear reactors, where there is no private power plant. But they split over what the new construction was.
The three of them said the location and size of the area under construction, and the fact that there are likely multiple floors, means that the most likely explanation for the work is the construction of a new heavy water reactor. Such reactors can generate different material keys for plutonium and nuclear weapons.
The other four admitted that it could be a heavy water reactor, but suggested that the work could be linked to a new facility for assembling nuclear weapons. They refused to be critical given that construction was still in its early stages.
“It’s probably a nuclear reactor – the judgement is circumstantial, but that’s the nature of these things,” said Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the James Martin Non-Proliferation Research Center at the Middlebury International Institute, which is based on imagery and Dimona’s history. “It’s very hard to imagine it being something else.”
Israel has not confirmed or denied its possession of atomic weapons, and its government did not respond to requests for comment. The White House, Israel’s most solid ally, also did not respond to requests for comment.
It’s underway for years
The Associated Press first reported Excavation at the facilityapproximately 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Jerusalem in 2021. The satellite image then showed only workers digging workers about 150 meters (165 yards) long (165 yards) long and 60 meters (65 yards) wide, near the site’s original heavy water reactor.
Images taken by Planet Labs PBC on July 5 show the structure of the intensification at the excavation site. The thick concrete retaining wall appears to be located at a site that appears to have multiple floors underground. The crane is looming overhead.
There is no containment dome or any other feature normally associated with heavy water reactors currently visible at the site. However, you can add it later or design a reactor without one.
Dimona’s current Heavy Water Reactor, which came online in the 1960s, runs much longer than most nuclear reactors of the same era. This suggests that it should be replaced or retrofitted immediately.
“The core of the reactor is pretty tall so you’re going to expect that,” Lewis said. “Based on the location, size and general shortfalls of construction, it’s more likely to be a nuclear reactor than anything.”
This satellite photo provided by Planet Labs PBC shows the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Centre, near Dimona, Israel on July 5, 2025 (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
Edwin Lyman, a nuclear expert at Cambridge for the Massachusetts-based Association of Scientists of Concerns, said the new construction could be a box-shaped reactor with no visible containment dome, but admitted that the lack of transparency has certainly made it difficult.
Israel “forces the public to speculate because it doesn’t allow international testing or verification of what it is doing,” Lyman said.
Details of the 1980s whistleblower of Israel’s Dimona remains a closely held secret We have released details and photos of the facility This led experts to conclude that Israel had produced dozens of nuclear warheads.
“If it’s a heavy water reactor, they’re trying to maintain their ability to produce spent fuel that can be processed to separate plutonium for more nuclear weapons,” says Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Management Association. “Or they’re building facilities that maintain weapons or build additional warheads.”
Israeli programmes are believed to rely on by-products of heavy water reactors
Israel is believed to rely on heavy water reactors to make nuclear weapons, like India and Pakistan. Nuclear reactors can be used for scientific purposes, but plutonium, which causes the nuclear chain reaction required by atomic bombs, is a by-product of the process. Tritium is another by-product and can be used to increase the explosive yield of warheads.
Given the secrets of Israel’s programme, it remains difficult to estimate just the number of nuclear weapons it possesses. A 2022 Atomic Scientist Breaking News put the number on roughly 90 warheads.
A spy satellite photo, later declassified by the US government on September 29, 1971, shows what is now known as the Simon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, located near the city of Dimona, Israel. (US Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science/US Geological Survey, via AP)
As Lyman pointed out that it is attenuated by 5% each year, the reason for the construction at Dimona may be that it is getting more tritium.
“If they’re building a new production reactor, he’s not necessarily trying to expand the plutonium they have, but that doesn’t mean he’s trying to produce tritium.”
Israel has a policy of nuclear ambiguity
It is believed that Israel began building nuclear sites in the desert in the late 1950s after the Holocaust was launched in 1948 with several wars with the Arab neighbours surrounding its establishment.
The nuclear ambiguity policy is believed to have helped to stop the enemy.
It is believed to be among the nine countries that are confirmed or believed to have atomic weapons, and have not participated in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a landmark international agreement aimed at halting the spread of nuclear weapons. This means that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, does not have the right to conduct Dimona inspections.
Asked about the construction, the Vienna-based IAEA reiterated that Israel “has no obligation to provide information about other nuclear facilities in the country.”
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Additional AP coverage for nuclear landscapes: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nucleul-landscape/
